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Saturday, 1 March 2014

Piers Morgan speaks to The Middle Stump

Piers Morgan is a huge cricket fan. A close friend, as well as being an admirer of Kevin Pietersen, the celebrity has been outspoken recently in various forms of the media, criticising certain members of the England team, the selectors, and the ECB. Piers disagreed with many points raised in our recent interview with the Sun's cricket correspondent John Etheridge, regarding KP, so we gave him the opportunity of putting his view across in more than 140 characters. Like the name of our radio podcast (which you can listen to by clicking on the left of this article), you will find Piers sensationally Pushing the Boundaries in this explosive interview. Cook, Swann, Prior, Flower and many more get both barrels from the man who vigorously campaigns against gun laws in the States. Read on...

Piers Morgan

TMS: Piers, as a man who has interviewed
some of the most famous people in the world, been a massive cricket fan for
years and a prolific tweeter on the game it must be a massive privilege to be
interviewed by the best in the business, The Middle Stump?

PM: This is my career high, obviously.
Whenever I interviewed massive stars like Oprah Winfrey or George Clooney, all
I was really thinking was: ‘This is exciting, but I’d much rather be grilled by
The Middle Stump.’

TMS: You have been a cricket fan for years
haven’t you? Where did it all start?

PM: I loved the game from as soon as I could
walk. My two brothers and I would play endlessly up against the wall of the pub
where I grew up in Fletching, East Sussex. I went on to be captain of the local
Cumnor House prep school team, and opened the bowling. I was quite quick then,
and modelled my action on Dennis Lillee (I also used to wear my collar up like
Tony Greig). My best figures were 10 wickets for 9 runs off 11 overs. I’ve
still got the scorecard. I even got into the England prep schools’ squad, which
was the highest level I reached as a cricketer. From the age of 13, I played my
cricket for Newick, another East Sussex village. My bowling went from fast, to
medium, to off-spin as I fell for the charms of wine, women and song. I ended
up batting No3, and scored quite a lot of runs including one ton, and at least
four League 90s. I was always out trying to hit a 6 going for the century.
Reckless to the end! Newick are now a pretty good club side, playing in the top
division of the East Sussex League, one below County League level. For about
five years, my brother Jeremy and I used to go and watch Sussex play at Hove,
and often bowled at the likes of Imran Khan or Javed Mianded in the nets. We
had a great team in the 70s. I also used
to correspond with Don Bradman, I still have over 30 letters he sent me.

TMS: Do you still play?

PM: Only once a year,
sadly, as I live and work in America. I host an annual family game against my
village, and pack my team with ringers. Over the years we’ve had KP, Freddie,
Afridi, Curtly Ambrose, Richie Richardson, Kallicharran, Tuffers, Devon
Malcolm…loads of big names. Last year, I had Lara, Inzamam and Courtney Walsh. The whole village turns out to watch and it’s
more competitive than the Ashes!

Piers and a few ringers

TMS: Who was your favourite player growing
up and watching the game?

PM: Tony Greig and Dennis Lillee as a kid, then Ian
Botham and Viv Richards as a teenager. Latterly, Flintoff, Pietersen and Warne.

TMS: Least favourite?

PM: I used to find
watching Chris Tavare bat about as enjoyable as dunking my head into a vat of
manure. God he was boring.

PM: Don Bradman
used to practice by throwing a golf ball at a water cooler, and repeatedly
hitting it with a single stump. You want to be the best in the world, at
anything, that’s the kind of thing you need to do. I also liked Keith Miller’s
response to being asked if he felt ‘under pressure’ before going out to bat
against England. Miller, who’d flown in the Australian air force during the
war, laughed. ‘Mate, pressure’s having a Messerschmitt up your arse, not
playing cricket!’ A few modern players could do with that attitude.

TMS: Any other celebs into their cricket
that you know?

PM: Loads, even American movie stars. Gerard Butler and Mark
Wahlberg both have stakes in teams in the Caribbean 20/20 League. Quite bizarre
talking to Gerard about googlies and doosras but he loves it.

TMS: Favourite ground?

PM: Lord’s. I’ve gone to
the 2nd and 3rd days of pretty much every Lord’s test for
30 years.

Lord's...fave ground

TMS: Graeme Fowler and his wife Sarah tell
us that you are a great bloke to go and have a beer with. Ever had too much
after a day at the Test?

PM: I think a better phrased question would be ‘have you
ever NOT had too much after a day at the Test?’ The most dangerous days are the
ones when Ian Botham appears at the end of play to say: ‘Fancy dinner?’

TMS: You have been quite a prolific tweeter
recently regarding ‘KPgate’. Are you surprised to hear some of the stories
emanating out of the England dressing room?

PM: Not surprised, because there was a
small clique of players in that dressing room who had it for him because they
were insanely jealous of the fame and money he attracted, and we’re now
beginning to see their true colours. The likes of Prior and Swann, to name but
two.

TMS: I think 61% of people (in a recent poll) think KP should
be returned to the England team and I know you are in that percentage. Why do
you think KP was dropped?

PM: Well, we don’t know, do we? That’s the point. The ECB
hasn’t actually been able to cite a single reason. It’s utterly absurd. When
you sack someone (and I am something of an expert in this area), you’re
supposed to say why. Kevin still hasn’t got a clue, which I think is
scandalous. My rage is two-fold. One, he’s a good mate. But more importantly,
he’s my favourite player, and is still only 33. He could have another 3/4 years
playing for England, and he’s the greatest run-scorer in all forms of the game
we’ve ever had. He’s also box office – the guy most people love to see bat over
anyone else. Our team just got less good, and less exciting.

Cook...Piers isn't a fan of his captaincy

TMS: John Etheridge of the Sun recently mentioned in
his interview with us that KP had publicly slagged off Carberry in front of all
of the team and booked a flight home when the Sydney test was still due to be
played. What is your view on this?

PM: Kevin gets on very well with Carberry. In
fact, he gets on very well with all the non-clique players. Ask the younger
players, in particular, if they think he’s been a force for good or bad in that
dressing room. They’ve been silenced by the ECB and Cook, who’s as cowardly as
he’s useless as a captain.

TMS: Do you think there has been a media
campaign to get rid of Kevin?

PM: Of course. He stopped talking to them after the
way they treated him over text-gate, and this was their chance for revenge.
They also have the fear of God put into them by Giles Clarke and other ECB
management - so many cricket writers just toe the corporate line rather than
report what they really think. Pathetic to watch.

KP...media campaign to get rid of him according to Piers

TMS: What is your view on Matt Prior and his
recent tweets?

PM: Laughable. He always wanted KP’s fame and money. But nobody
wanted to give him the fame, or pay him the money. I didn’t see Mr Prior being
bought for $1.6m at the recent IPL auction…did you? In fact, KP was the only
England player to be bought, what does that tell you?

TMS: Is he (Prior) on your Christmas card list?

PM: Er,
no.

TMS: What was your view on the parody
account of KP coming from close sources of the team and his reintegration into
the side a couple of years ago?

PM: I think Broad, Swann and Anderson all conspired
to use that parody account to ridicule KP, and yet nothing ever happened to
them. One rule for the clique, another for KP. Re text-gate, Kevin has good
mates in all the international teams and often texts them. Nobody complained when
he did it with Gayle, or Warne, or guys like that. I’d love to see what
Strauss, Flower, Swann, Prior etc all texted about KP during that South Africa
series, and to whom! As for the specific very damaging allegation that KP told
the South Africans how to get Strauss out, do me a favour! Even I knew by that
stage of his career that you just had to go round the wicket and he’d nick off
to the slips. KP never told the South Africans that, it was a complete lie.

Swann and Prior

TMS: Why do you think Graeme Swann retired
in mid series?

PM: Because he’s a gutless egotist. Can there be anything more
cowardly than running away in the middle of an Ashes series? I thought it was
disgraceful.

TMS: Do you think Flower and Cook mismanaged
KP?

PM: They didn’t manage him at all. Flower was an officious headmaster who
couldn’t handle any player offering opinions that didn’t directly concur with
his own. And Cook is the most spineless, and hopeless, captain we’ve ever had.
Great batsman, but couldn’t lead a Morris dance.

TMS: How do you think the ECB have handled
the whole affair?

PM: With their usual incompetence! Just the same as they handled
Gower and Botham. They like their players to be robotic dullards, not
individuals with their own characters. Kevin Pietersen doesn’t take crap from
anyone, on or off the pitch. We love his bravado, audacity and arrogance on the
pitch, but expect him to be a meek, mild choirboy off it. Absurd. Michael
Vaughan got the best out of KP, as Brearley got the best out of Botham. Flower
treated him like a naughty schoolboy, and Cook went along with it.

TMS: How do you think the England team will
fare over the next couple of years without their star player?

PM: They’ll flop in
the two World Cups. In Test cricket, we should compete well with Sri Lanka,
India, West Indies and New Zealand at home, and West Indies away. But I can’t
see us beating Australia in 2015, and the Ashes remain our biggest series.
Regardless, our chances of winning any game are diminished by KP’s dismissal,
and the fans have been robbed of watching their most exciting player.

TMS: Do you see similarities between
Pietersen’s removal and Gower’s twenty odd years ago?

PM: Very much. Two
wonderfully talented flair players removed before they should have been, to the
detriment of the fans.

Piers takes on Brett Lee recently in the MCG nets

TMS: What was it like facing Brett Lee
recently?

PM: Bloody terrifying! He was bowling off about 19 yards and trying to
kill me – egged on by a baying mob of 5000 Aussies, and the entire Australian
team. My sister said it was like watching a public stoning.

TMS: I thought you may have got across and
hooked him, haha? Shane Warne and Michael Vaughan were wincing.

PM: I didn’t see a single ball. Viv
Richards told me to get down the track to him, but you have to be Viv Richards
to make that come off. I tried instead to give myself room, but he followed me…
like a hungry shark sensing a bleeding dolphin trying to flee.

TMS: How quick does he actually come in?

PM: Shane Warne reckoned he was bowling well over 150kph, and faster because of the
no balls. That’s as quick as Johnson right now. I faced out the over though,
despite breaking a rib, and that was the only reason I did it – to show the
England team that they should be showing a bit more guts against Johnson and
Co.

TMS: Do you think that there should be
cricket on free to air tv in this country such as maybe T20?

PM: Yes. I think Sky
do a brilliant job, but cricket’s not as big a sport as it used to be in
England because fewer people watch it on TV. It’s a simple equation.

TMS: Do you think we are losing a generation
to cricket due to it not being on terrestrial tv?

PM: No question. Kids replicate
what they see on TV. I watched Lillee and Greig on BBC1, and wanted to be them.
I don’t think I’d be watching anything like as much cricket now if I was a kid
again.

Prior...not on Piers Christmas card list

TMS: You’re a massive Arsenal fan too Piers.
If cricketers had Arsenal connections we think Steve Harmison would be Michael
Thomas after his last gasp wicket at Edgbaston in 2005 emulating Thomas’ goal
at Anfield in 1989. Paul Downton could be Silent Stan Kroenke. Any others?

PM: I think the best sportswriter generally is the
Mail’s Martin Samuel, who doesn’t bring personal grudges or agendas to his
writing. And who understands the complex mix it takes to make a genius
sportsman. My least favourite is Paul Newman, also of the Mail, who was KP’s
ghost-writer then stabbed him in the back with a vicious campaign.

TMS: We do a lot of work with the charity
Melanoma UK. What do you think of their work educating young cricketers? And do you
always factor up before watching the game?

PM: Incredibly important. I live a lot
of the time in LA, where it’s often very hot. And always factor up because I
hear so many stories of people here getting skin cancer. It’s not hard to
protect yourself, yet so many people either forget or don’t think it will ever
happen to them. It might, so do it. The charity does fantastic work in
reminding young people of the dangers. Cricketers in particular spend whole
days in the sun, they have a special problem to deal with.

Stokes with Cook

TMS: Best three youngsters coming through in
the UK?

PM: Ben Stokes, Sam Robson and Tymal Mills.

TMS: What does the future
hold for English cricket and for Piers Morgan? PM: I’ll be fine, thanks. But I’ll
be a lot happier if the ECB stop being so ridiculous, and bring KP back to the
team. I want to watch him bat, simple as that.So like him or loathe him, and not many people sit on the fence when it comes to Piers, the man is a cricketing cornucopia of opinions and stories. The need to talk about Kevin, just rumbles on and on.

12 comments:

Need to clear up 2 things. 1. He's now the ex anti gun lobbyist in the USA. 2. Phone tapping and bribing in journalism is the equivallent of match fixing in cricket. This man has no moral compass, his opinion is worthless other than to be flabvergasted at.

Need to clear up 2 things. 1. He's now the ex anti gun lobbyist in the USA. 2. Phone tapping and bribing in journalism is the equivallent of match fixing in cricket. This man has no moral compass, his opinion is worthless other than to be flabvergasted at.

Good scoop for TMS. As ever Piers says nothing I, nor anybody, I know agrees with. If Piers loves KP then he can simply follow him to India. They will love Piers in India. It may also free a seat up for a proper fan on the 2nd and 3rd day of the Lords Test. The ECB were right to ditch KP but went about it the wrong way.Piers Morgan. #notfromYorkshire

Morgan is media savvy and knows, better, than most, how to bluster & obfuscate - I note Morgan doesn't deny Pietersen's comments about Carberry, which he most certainly would if they were untrue. I suspect Morgan's biggest issue is losing the reflected glory that, in his perception, comes from being 'KP's mate'. He's no more knowledgeable about cricket, in particular England cricket, than 10s of 1000s of others - and a lot less than many. The only difference is that the media, for reasons which escape me, persist in giving him a voice.

How can anyone believe a word this fool spouts.Watching his cowardly retreat against Brett Lee, it's hard to imagine he's ever held a bat in his life before, let alone accomplish all he claims, and as for all those stars turning out to play for him, pure fantasy.With friends like him KP dosn't need too many enemies.

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